The last decade has seen the development of production technologies such GPS monitoring and automatic feeding systems advance at pace. If the same progress is achieved over the next decade, then there is likely to be significant change in the way production systems are operated.

The adoption of new technologies will be driven by two factors – technologies offering greater capabilities, but more so from such technologies becoming more affordable to a wider cohort of farmers. This will mainly occur in more intensive systems where there is scope to absorb a higher level of investment, but tech such as GPS tracking and no fence technologies will offer greater ability to manage grazing in extensive or remote areas.

There are also more subtle changes occurring that are having a major impact on animal identification. The first year of the National Genotyping Programme saw over 700,000 calves DNA registered. As outlined on page 50, approximately 15% of parentage errors were identified in dairying and 10% in suckler with genotyping identifying the sire in 83% of these cases.

The BVD National Eradication Programme has underpinned a major reduction in the prevalence of BVD at farm level since its mandatory introduction in 2013, as outlined on pages 48-49. But with over 10 years of testing, farmers now need to see a roadmap to how the eradication programme will be brought to a conclusion.

Page 52 details important new information on changes to animal tagging rules in Northern Ireland in 2025. This is vital reading for cattle, sheep and goat farmers. The equine sector is also in the midst of new identification rules being introduced, as outlined on page 53.

With a growing percentage of the national cattle herds in Ireland and Northern Ireland now electronically tagged, Datamars’ Joseph O’Callaghan makes a good point on page 50 regarding the importance of standardising equipment so tags can be easily read. More also needs to be done in terms of the enforcement of microchipping and dog licensing rules, to protect sheep flocks.